Encourage children to visit open houses — Hamisa
TAWAU: The culture of visiting neighbours and multiracial friends during festive seasons need to be nurtured in children, said Assistant Resource Development and Information Technology Minister Datuk Hamisa Samat.
She said the culture of visiting open houses during festivities could indirectly foster unity among the various races in the state.
“Such practice should be continued as the spirit of racial unity among members of the community can be nurtured.
“By visiting the open houses of other races, we can understand, respect their religion, culture and customs, and thus strengthen relations among the races,” she said during her open house visit to her relatives and friends in Tawau, on Friday.
Hamisa, who is also the Tanjong Batu assemblywoman, also said people living in a multi-racial community in Malaysia, must maintain and strengthen unity through visits during the festive celebrations.
“Visiting is not only during the Hari Raya celebration. We can look at such tradition during the New Year’s Eve, Kaamatan, Christmas, Deepavali and so on.
“Hence, the government strongly encourages the continuation of this kind of culture and to maintain it in order to strengthen national integration among the multiracial people of the country,” she said.
She also said the people should be grateful to be able to celebrate all festivals in the country.
“The celebration which we celebrate today is not only for the Malays; we can see that other races like Chinese, Kadazan and Indians are also celebrating it.
“This illustrates the strong unity and the political stability of the country. Thus, foreign investors are not hesitant to come and invest here,” she said.